I know I don't post much on LinkedIn, but this is so important! Women are such a small percentage of the industry (I think it was 28% that I read earlier today), and yet the majority of the people I look up to in the industry are women. We need to do better, and make this an industry that attracts more women.
I've told this story privately, but never publicly before, and I feel that is one way that I have personally failed both this industry, and women in general. That failure ends here.
One of the most crushing moments I have experienced in this industry was when I was interviewing candidates for a team lead position at a company I used to work for. This person wasn't going to work for me directly, but would have had significant interaction with the team that I managed, so I was brought in to help ensure the best candidate was chosen. The manager of the team the position was for, and the director who was over both our teams were very sexist and racist (though the racism doesn't come into play here).
There were a number of candidates for the position, but only one of them was a woman who was working on the team already, after working her way up from a lower-tier team. She was intelligent, ambitious, and had some fantastic ideas about how to improve the team. The skills and passion were there, and she would have been a fantastic choice that would have only driven the team forward.
When it came time choose a candidate, this woman was the clear choice. The second choice was a man who had very little ambition, but was well-liked by coworkers, and would have maintained the status quo. The third choice was someone who had great ambition, but was just too green and needed more experience before being ready to jump into a leadership role.
In the end, the hiring manager and director chose the status quo guy - my personal third choice. Not much longer after this, I left the company. Partially because I was offered what, at the time, was a dream job, but partially because I was done putting up with the casual sexism and racism that was rampant in the company's upper management.
Now for the happy ending. The company was bought out shortly after I left. The director was let go almost immediately, and the manager I mentioned didn't last much longer, after having his role reduced shortly after the transition. But what of the woman I wanted to hire into that team lead role? She's still there, and is now the Sr. Manager over not only that team, but also the team I used to manage.
Our team at Huntress wants to make #cybersecurity as accessible as possible for women—and we know we’re not alone. This #WomensHistoryMonth, we want to highlight some of the ways we can all be an ally to women in cyber.
Read our blog to learn how we can make cybersecurity more inclusive to women—told by Huntress employees and women in the industry. https://bit.ly/49OuZXc
Enterprise Sales Account Manager, Southern California
2wThis looks like fun!!